Honey Cake: Then and Now Sunday, September 13, 2020

1 pm via Zoom

Share your recipe and/or find a new recipe to try Meet (at least) one new person and learn something about them or their tradition(s) Enjoy each other’s company and have fun! Start a living breathing recipe “share” that will be available to the whole congregation

Introductions! Please tell us your name and one of the following: Your favorite Jewish holiday or Your favorite Jewish food or Your favorite Jewish ingredient

Brief History of Honey Cake Jo-Anne Berelowitz

Recipe sharing Memories, Traditions, & Stories

If We Have Extra Time……… some thought-provoking conversation starters (!); ideas for next class HISTORY OF HONEY CAKE:

Gil Marks in his magisterial Encyclopedia of Jewish Food notes that the origin of honey cakes probably dates to the early eleventh century when Italians began making cakes from bread crumbs and honey. These cakes were dense, generally shaped as bread loaves, and baked directly on the floor of an oven. Italian Jews disseminated these rudimentary honey cakes throughout medieval Europe.

The current form of honey cake evolved over centuries, assuming its closest relation to our present concept in the late nineteenth century. Its evolution is part of the agricultural history and eating habits of Europe in which wheat emerged as the dominant grain. By the end of the seventeenth century bakers began to update the doorstopper density of honey cakes by adding eggs and oil and substituting wheat flour for bread crumbs. The result was lighter, more tender loaves. The introduction of alkaline chemical leavenings in the eighteenth century led to even lighter lekach or honey cakes. By the mid-nineteenth century the advent of baking soda and baking powder made cakes even lighter. Their looser batter meant that they could no longer be baked free-form, but required some form of shaping tin or container.

In some parts of Eastern Europe lekach was a generic word for cake or sponge cake, while honey cake was denoted as honig lekach or honik leykekh.

In the seventeenth century the use of honey declined as a sweetener because of the cheaper and more widespread availability of sugar from plantations in the Caribbean and Brazil. But honey and honey cakes continued to be part of Jewish rituals—at kiddushes, brit milahs, bar mitzvahs, weddings, Shabbat, Hanukkah, the meal following Yom Kippur, and, of course, at Rosh Hashanah.

The first recipe for “Lekach” in English was in the International Jewish Cook Book by Florene Kreisler Greenbaum (New York, 1918). Since then, almost every Jewish cookbook includes a recipe for it.

Recipe sharing Memories, Traditions, & Stories

The recipes are in somewhat of a random order. When your recipe comes up, please tell us a little bit about it…

Some ideas: Why is this your favorite High Holiday recipe? What makes this recipe so delicious or special? Do you have any story or memory you’d like to share? (if you would prefer not to present your recipe, that is completely fine!) 

Marsha Steinback - Honey Cake

Leslie Otis – Yummy Apple Cake

4 C flour 2 C sugar 4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 c Vegetable or (olive)Oil 3/4 C orange juice 4 eggs 4 medium Gala apples, peeled, thinly sliced 1/4 C cinnamon sugar

Preheat Oven 350 In a mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add the oil, orange juice and eggs. Mix well on low speed. Pour half batter in a greased and floured tube pan. Add a thin layer of apples. Sprinkle with lots of cinnamon sugar. Avoid the sides of the pan if possible. Repeat with batter, apples, cinnamon sugar. Bake 350 1 1/2 hours or until toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before removing from the pan onto a serving plate.

Serves 12-16...... Enjoy!

Kayna Levy – “Aunt Sarah’s Honey and Apple Cake”

Sandra Freed – Aunt Edith (Lorber’s) Bopka

Makes 2 1/2 pound butter 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 cup boiling water 2 egg 2 packages dry yeast 1 cup tepid water 6 cups flour, or more 1 teaspoon vanilla cinnamon sugar mixture chopped nuts raisins melted butter

Cream butter, sugar. Pour boiling water on creamed mixture and stir. Allow to cool. Dissolve yeast in tepid water. Add to mixture. Add eggs, flour and vanilla to mixture. Dough will be soft. Cover and place in refrigerator overnight. (Dough can stay in refrigerator for several days). Roll 1/2 dough on floured board into rectangle approximately 18 in x 10 in. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture, nuts and raisins. Roll dough jelly-roll fashion. Place in greased bundt pan or tube pan. Set to rise in warm place, covered, for 1-2 hours or until doubled. Brush with more melted butter and sprinkle sugar on top. Bake until done. 350 degrees, 35-45 minutes.

Judi Lefton – Apple Pecan Squares

Alla Postelnik – Honey Cake

Andra Gardner - Luchen Kugel or Noodle Pudding

Arrange 1 cup of unbroken pecan halves into a bundt pan On stove top melt 1/4 lb margarine with 1/2 cup dark brown sugar Pour this over the pecan halves

Cook 1 cup of wide egg noodles (1 lb) add to 4 beaten eggs 1/4 lb melted butter 1 tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 2/3 cup sugar

Pour this into a bundt pan and cook for 1 hour at 350°.

Blossom Cohon – Apple Cake with Honey Frosting

Cake:

2 ¼ lbs apples (~5 or 6 apples) 1 ¼ C sugar, divided 1 C + 2 Tbsp butter, soft ¼ C honey 1 C walnuts, chopped 3 eggs 3 C flour 2 ½ tsp baking powder 2 tsp grated orange rind

Mix diced apples with ½ C sugar Beat butter and remaining ¾ C sugar, beat well Beat in honey and eggs one at a time Sift flour w/ baking powder, stir in Add the walnuts and orange rind Spread in greased, lined, 13x9 inch pan Bake 45 mins at 350° Cool in pan for 20 mins, then turn out and cool the rest of the way

Frosting:

2 eggs, room temp ½ C honey 1 C butter, soft but cool ½ C walnuts for garnish

Beat eggs Bring honey to a boil and add gradually to the eggs, whisking constantly Beat at high until cool and thick, about 5 mins Cream butter, mix together Frost the cake and garnish with walnuts

Carly Johnson – Apple Hemp Muffins (vegan, can be GF)

Apple Hemp Muffins Moist, lightly spiced muffins with the added nutrition of hemp seed nuts. These are easy and quick, and sure to please both kids and adults! Course baking, Breakfast, muffins, Snack

Servings 12 muffins

Ingredients  1 1/2 cups all-purpose or white wheat or GF all-purpose flour  1 cup oat flour or GF all-purpose flour  2/3 - 3/4 cup hemp seeds  2 tsp baking powder  1 tsp baking soda  1/4 tsp sea salt  1 1/2 - 1 3/4 tsp cinnamon  1/4 tsp ground cardamom can substitute freshly grated nutmeg  1 cup unsweetened organic applesauce  1/2 cup pure maple syrup  3/4 cup plain or vanilla non-dairy milk  1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract  1/3 cup raisins or chopped raw banana spears (use kitchen shears or knife to cut in small pieces about size of raisins) Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients, sifting in the baking powder and baking soda. Stir through until well combined. In another bowl, combine applesauce, maple syrup, non-dairy milk, and vanilla, and mix together. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and gently fold and mix through, until just combined (do not overmix). Spoon the mixture into a muffin pan lined with cupcake liners (this will fill 12 muffins quite full). Bake for 21-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (See notes above about cooling to help remove from liner.) Makes 12 large muffins.

Carly Johnson – Cinnamon Roll Challah

INGREDIENTS

Dough 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour 2 eggs (and 1 more for egg wash) 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet) 3 tablespoons honey ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon salt ⅔ cup warm water

Filling ⅓ cup canola oil ¾ cup brown sugar 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon pinch of salt

PREPARATION

For this recipe, we make the dough on the counter because it's fun and you don't need to wash a huge bowl afterwards. Place the flour in the center of your table and make a hole in the center like a crater in the top of a pyramid. In the center of the flour, add the eggs, yeast, honey, oil, salt and half of the water. Mix with a fork. Then using a spoon or your hands pull some of the flour from the edges into the center to form a dough. Add the remaining water while there is still a bowl shape in the flour. Mix into a dough and knead for 7 minutes. Cover and allow to rise for 1 hour in a warm place. While the dough is rising, make the filling a medium sized bowl. Add the oil, sugar and cinnamon. Mix. Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Separate the dough into 3 pieces. Roll each one into a square with a rolling pin. It helps to flip the dough and pull the corners with your hands. If you rip the dough, simply patch it with your fingers. Spread the cinnamon-sugar mix on the dough, leaving a 1/2 inch around the edges. Roll each square. Pinch the ends and stretch each strand to about a foot long. Braid them up! Place on a non-stick baking surface and cover for 30 minutes. Gently brush the challah dough with one beaten egg. Bake for 30 minutes. If the top is getting too dark, place a piece of foil on top of the challah in the oven.

Jo-Anne Berelowitz – Honey Cake #2

Jo-Anne Berelowitz – Honey Cake #3